Ghana to host Africa Regional Development Forum 2018

The Regional Development Forum 2018 (RDF-18) for the Africa region will be hosted in Ghana, Deputy Minister of Communications, George Andah has announced.

The event, which will span through from 18 to 20 July at the Accra International Conference Centre is set to provide a high-level dialogue between the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) and decision makers of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Member States and Sector Members.

Members will have the platform to speak their minds on potentials of technologies and their role in transforming economies and transforming the entire African states.

At a media briefing in Accra, the Deputy Communications Minister said the forum comes at a time when one of the Ministry's focus is on the digital agenda of the country by looking into the application of projects such as the implementation of the GhanaCard, interoperability, and the Digital Addressing System.

According to him, the plans mentioned are particularly the main reasons the ITU community agreed to make Ghana the host country of this year’s conference theme, ‘ICT?SDGs: Towards the Implementation of WTDC17 Outcomes’ which is in partnership with the Ministry of Communications.

“When we talk about creating a digital economy, these are the three key things that need to be in place for us to be able to have a digital economy take off smoothly. I think that we are on the right path and that is one of the reasons why the ITU decided to accept our request to host this conference in Ghana,” he indicated.

The forum will have detailed working group breakout sessions to focus on five major initiatives which will include; Building digital economies and fostering innovation in Africa, Promotion of emerging broadband technologies and Building trust and security in the use of telecommunications/information and communication technology

Other areas for discussion are Strengthening human and institutional capacity building, Management and onitoring of the radio frequency spectrum and transition to digital broadcasting.

The Regional Director for Africa of ITU Andrew Rugege, in his submission, stated that ICT has a critical role in transforming economies. Thus, it is crucial for Africa to get involved in the growing technological world.

Andrew Rugege, laying emphasis on African countries collectively getting together to discuss the way forward, stressed that it is crucial that ICT gets to everyone. To him, that is when the continent will see some major developmental changes.

The ITU is the global and specialized agency of the United Nations with a membership of 191 States, with responsibility for the regulation, standardization, coordination and development of international telecommunications.

Its antecedents can be traced to 1865 when the first International Telegraph Convention was signed, giving birth to the International Telegraph Union, and subsequently to the signing in 1906 of the first International Radiotelegraph Convention.